As wildlife stocks diminish and bag limits on waterfowl decrease, a variety of systems have been created to help hunters improve their shooting skills. For example, beginning waterfowlers can gain experience shooting clay targets. Moreover, mechanized target launchers provide for a structured and repeatable shooting environment that is conducive to sporting competitions, military, and law enforcement firearms training.
A variety of formats exist for clay target shooting, including trap, skeet, and sporting clays. Additionally, many formats for handgun and rifle competition and training also exist.
For example, an official trap shooting course consists of five shooting stations arranged three yards apart in a semi-circle, beginning sixteen yards behind a sunken trap house facing away from the shooter. Clay targets are thrown at a rising angle away from the shooter, much like a flushing pheasant. A round of trap consists of shooting at five targets from each of the five shooting stations. For increased difficulty, shooters can stand further behind the trap house or shoot doubles (two targets thrown simultaneously).
A round of skeet shooting includes 25 targets thrown from trap towers at different heights. The two towers, known as the lower house and the higher house, face each other across an open field. Both towers throw targets at the same speed and trajectory, but at different heights. A skeet course consists of seven shooting stations arranged in a half circle and an eighth station positioned directly between the two towers. During a round, the shooter receives one target from both houses at each of the eight stations. The shooter then takes a double throw (two targets simultaneously) launched by both houses at station numbers 1, 2, 6 and 7. If a shooter has scored a perfect round, he receives a final target thrown from the lower house at station 8. Otherwise he must shoot from the location of his first miss.
While trap and skeet shooting have standardized course designs, every sporting clays course is unique. Designers use natural features such as ponds, wooden ravines, and hedge rows to create shooting stations that closely simulate hunting for game such as ducks, quail, pheasants, grouse, doves, and rabbits. For example, a very popular station found on many courses is known as the "duck blind" where a shooter waiting in a boat or blind must hit targets descending over a pond like a landing mallard.
A round of sporting clays includes as many as 100 targets, most of which are doubles. The doubles may be simultaneous doubles in which two targets are thrown at once, trailing pairs in which the release of the second target is briefly delayed, and report doubles in which the second target is thrown immediately after the first shot.
There are several other formats for sporting clay courses including NSCA, 5-STAND SPORTING, FITASC, COMPAK SPORTING, which use various target presentation sequences and require less land area. The rules for COMPAK and NSCA 5-STAND Sporting Clays are hereby incorporated by reference.
The use of specialty targets also adds to the challenge of sporting clays. For example, medium sized "midi" targets and small "mini" targets are thrown to challenge the shooters depth perception. Other specialty targets include the wafer thin "butte" which twists and turns in flight like a dove, the "rabbit" which bounces and skids on the ground, and the "rocket" which is fast flying and difficult to break.
The typical sporting clays course may have a dozen or more shooting stations, with multiple target machines on each station. Moreover, a typical shooting competition may have hundreds of competitors, each having an individual target launch sequence to be controlled and scored. Therefore, there is a need for a method and apparatus for automatically controlling multiple target machines at multiple stations, and for tracking and scoring large numbers of shooters.
However, current methods and systems for controlling the launch of targets are hard wired to each of the launchers. Some of the current systems are operated by a central computer interface that is located at a fixed location relative to the shooting stations. These systems lack a user interface which is portable and easy to use. Also these systems lack a remote score keeping capability or the ability to modify the program parameters. Finally, if the central computer fails, the entire course and/or competition is halted until the system is repaired.